Balthasar Gelt

Balthazar Gelt is a character in Warhammer Fantasy

History

Even before becoming Supreme Patriarch of The Empire's Colleges of Magic, Gelt was very passionate about magic, specializing in the Lore of Metal (Otherwise known as Alchemy). However, he wasn't exactly using it for the best of intentions. The first mention of him mentions that he transmuted lead into gold and then paid a ship to take him to Marienburg and then ran away before anyone found out. Of course, there was a bounty on his head (And there still is, funnily enough. Good thing he got a good position).

Anyway, after arriving in Altdorf, he decided to join the Gold College. His passion for science and his natural intelligence allowed for him to become good friends with the Imperial Engineers as well as Patriarch of the Gold Order within a decade. One day, he was experimenting, and that led to a freak explosion. Freak explosion led to some horrible disfigurement (Perhaps his entire skin turned to gold, perhaps it's just boring old scars). Whatever he case, the accident didn't faze him, but instead drove him further to greatness. His power apparently grew enough since that time that he even managed to overthrow the previous Supreme Patriarch (A Thyrus Gormann of the Bright Order).

Since that time, he's just been enjoying being filthy powerful.

The End Times

It's possible to say that it was Gelt who was responsible in part for the End Times kicking as hard as they have.

See, one day he was met by this weird girl (A vampire under Queen Neferata's thrall) who gave him some strange scrolls detailing a wall capable of melding both faith and magic in a seamless fashion through the prayers of an army of warrior priests and wizards. Following Volkmar the Grim's disappearance into Sylvania, Gelt decided to test it out and built the first Wall of Faith around Sylvania, locking in the Undead. Predictably, this pissed off a certain megalomaniacal Vampire Count off royally enough that he had to beg for aid from Arkhan the Black and kick their quest to resurrect Nagash into full-gear.

During that time, Gelt was considered a hero for the wall. Not one for knowing modesty, Gelt then attempted to make a bigger one, the Auric Bastion, around the Empire itself so it could be shielded from the incoming invasion of Chaos Vikings. While considered an even greater success, the wall was not flawless, and little chinks tended to appear. The issue was that despite making a bigger wall, he forgot all about the wall around Sylvania, a matter which had to yet again be pushed aside as it became clear these chinks wouldn't fix themselves. During this trip of fixing, he noticed the rise of Valten, the arrival of the undead (triggered by Nagash's resurrection), and the fact that the Changeling had snuck through the Bastion and was ready to cause all sorts of hell. Of these, the last concerned him enough that he decided to keep up tabs with Ar-Ulric Emil Valgeir as the two split paths to trail the daemon.

During this hunt, he also came upon the resurrected Vlad von Carstein, who revealed the nature of the bastion and also exposed a sentiment that the citizens shouldn't have to die if they didn't need to, and to this end, Vlad gave Gelt a book that delved into the contents of necromancy. Despite initially refusing the thought, Gelt did eventually succumb to the lure of undeath and started raising the dead to help him defend the Empire's walls. Since necromancy is considered Heresy, many of his allies began calling him traitor and an unfortunate scuffle saw that Elector Count Adelbrand Ludenhof got eaten by zombies.

Seeking to get away from the place, he lucked out when he found out that Ulric's top priest learned that the Emperor was planning to give Valten Ghal Maraz, and that gave Emil enough suspicion that perhaps the young man was the Changeling and that he'd strike the Emperor during the public meeting. Gelt desperately charged there to convince Karl to not go though with it, but he didn't listen and when guards came to kick him out, Gelt pretty much screwed himself over by raising more undead. At that point, he pretty must just said 'FUCK IT!' and started trying to kill Valten outright until he was held up by Kurt Helborg.

However, it turned out that the Changeling wasn't really Valten, but instead Valgeir, which pretty much broke any faith Gelt had left in himself and so he fled to become Vlad's new minion...

By the time the final stages came about, Vlad and Gelt finally decided to join the Empire in their defense of Averheim, and during this moment, Gelt managed to bind himself to Chamon, becoming the Incarnate of Metal as he began purging his memories of the black arts.